Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Krisztina Kehl-Bodrogi, Barbara Kell-

ner-Heinkele, and Anke Otter-Beaujean, eds., Syncretis-

tic Religious Communities in the Near East (New York: 

E.J. Brill, 1997); Matti Moosa, Extremist Shiites: The 

Ghulat Sects (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 

1988).

ghusl

  See a

blution

.

K  264  

ghulat

---

God

  See a

llah

.

goddess

A goddess is a female form of deity found in many 

of the world’s religions. She is usually paired with 

a male god and commonly included within a poly-

theistic religious system. The goddesses of ancient 

e

gypt

 and Mesopotamia were associated with the 

natural world—earth, fertility, plants, animals, 

the sky, and the planets. Some, such as Ishtar of 

i

raq

 and Isis of Egypt, were worshipped as protec-

tors of the king and his household. When Islam 

appeared in the seventh century, most forms of 

goddess worship had either disappeared or been 

assimilated by Christianity. The Virgin m

ary

 and 

J

esUs

, for example, were portrayed like Isis hold-

ing the infant Horus in the iconography of early 

Christian Egypt. Nevertheless, traditional goddess 

worship did continue in the more remote regions 

of the Middle East, including the Arabian Penin-

sula, where it disappeared after it encountered the 

new religion of Islam.

The three most popular goddesses in pre-

Islamic Arabia were al-Lat, Manat, and al-Uzza, 

sometimes called the daughters of a

llah

. Al-Lat 

(possibly the female counterpart of the Arabian 

high god Allah) was worshipped by Arab tribes 

in much of the peninsula. Her main temple was 

located in Taif, a town in the mountains southeast 

of m

ecca

, where she was worshipped in the form 

of a rock that was shaped like the k

aaba

. Manat, a 

very ancient goddess, was worshipped by the Arabs 

of Mecca, m

edina

 (Yathrib), and the surrounding 

territories. She may have been a local form of the 

goddess Ishtar, and her name suggests that she 

had power over human fortunes and destinies. A 

sacred site for her statue was created in a coastal 

town near Medina, and members of Medina’s lead-

ing tribes would go there to shave their heads on 

their return from pilgrimage to Mecca. Al-Uzza 

(the mighty one) was worshipped in northern 

Arabia and s

yria

, perhaps as a local version of 

the ancient Greek goddess Aphrodite. Her shrine 

was located on the road between Mecca and Taif, 

where there was a grove of sacred trees. People 

went there on pilgrimage to conduct sacrifices and 

consult oracles. Just before m

Uhammad

 began his 

mission, the q

Uraysh

 tribe, the most powerful in 

Mecca, consolidated the worship of all three god-

desses at the Kaaba. After 630, once Muslims had 

won control of western Arabia, they destroyed the 

images and shrines of these goddesses.

The idea of the woman as an embodiment of 

holiness did not end with the coming of Islam, 

however. The veneration of female 

saints

, par-

ticularly those descended from the House of the 

Prophet (

ahl

 

al

-

bayt

), such as F

atima

 and z

aynab

bint

  a

li

 

ibn

  a

bi

  t

alib

, is found in many Muslim 

lands among both Sunnis and Shiis. Moreover, 

the female beloved portrayed in Sufi literature 

was a symbol of the beautiful qualities of God, 

even though she was not explicitly called a god-

dess. Lastly, Muslims in certain parts of i

ndia